The first-degree murder trial of an Aberdeen woman, who stabbed the co-owner of the GuestHouse motel in Aberdeen to death in January 2019, gets underway Wednesday.
Bria Jessie Danner, 37, was caught on hotel surveillance stabbing Sung Sil Kim, then 53, to death in the lobby of the motel in the 600 block of Heron Street Jan. 30, 2019.
Danner can reportedly be seen on surveillance stabbing the victim, heading toward the lobby door to exit, then returning to stab the victim several more times. According to court documents, Danner had stayed in the motel a few months prior to the stabbing and had been warned about her aggressive behavior. Those documents indicate Danner and the victim had confrontations prior to the murder.
Around 4 p.m. on the day of the murder the Aberdeen Fire Department was dispatched to the motel for an unknown medical emergency, finding a “deceased female at the motel’s front desk” with “obvious stab wounds,” according to county prosecutor’s office documents.
Danner left the motel and headed south on Alder Street before heading east toward Safeway. There, police were called to reports of a woman “with bloody hands,” and she was detained by Aberdeen Police Department officers. She was known to police and had a history of substance abuse and physical violence, according to a police statement released the day of the murder, which also stated Danner said she had stabbed someone when contacted by police.
Danner’s attorney, David Arcuri, entered a not guilty by reason of insanity plea for his client in December 2019. Danner has been subjected to several psychological evaluations since her arrest.
In June 2020, Danner sent a handwritten note to Superior Court Presiding Judge David Edwards.
“I wish I hadn’t murdered anyone. It makes me sad,” she wrote.
She said she’d been meeting with three staff members of Western State Hospital during her evaluations.
“My mind has been healing and I wasn’t in my right mind before,” the letter to Edwards continued. “I am truly remorseful and sorry for things should be different.”
Danner is being housed in the Grays Harbor County Jail in Montesano on $500,000 bond.
